The Merry Misadventures

[luna-azzurra]

Tips for Writing Injuries

✧ Broken ribs suck. You don’t just “walk it off.” Breathing hurts. Laughing hurts. Existing hurts. Characters with rib injuries won’t be doing heroic sprints.

✧ Concussions aren’t instant naps. Dazed vision, nausea, dizziness, maybe even personality changes, but they’re not going to collapse neatly like in the movies.

✧ Blood loss is sneaky. It’s not just about dramatic pools of blood. It’s dizziness, confusion, and the body getting cold as circulation tanks.

✧ Adrenaline lies. Someone can take a serious injury and not feel it until the fight’s over. That “I didn’t realize I was bleeding until later” trope? Very real.

✧ Twisted ankles are brutal. One bad step and suddenly running is off the table. Even walking hurts like hell. Perfect way to ground a chase scene.

✧ Burns linger. Even small burns hurt more than most people expect. Blisters, infection risk, constant pain, it’s not just a cool scar later.

✧ Dislocated shoulders = useless arm. Characters can’t keep swinging a sword or firing a gun. They’re basically fighting one-armed until it’s fixed.

✧ Shock is a thing. Pale skin, trembling, rapid heartbeat, and eventually disorientation. A character might not even realize how bad their wound is.

✧ Stitches aren’t magic. Getting sewn up is painful and recovery takes time. They’re not instantly battle-ready after a needle and thread.

✧ Scars tell stories. Some fade, some don’t. Some stay sensitive forever. Don’t forget the aftermath when the wound becomes part of the character.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Notes: Character Mannerisms

Character Mannerisms - a character’s unconscious individual gestures, affectations, or other distinctive behavioral traits.

These character quirks can be physical (like a character who constantly drums fingers on the table), vocal (like a character who mumbles), or have to do with a character’s personality (like a character with persistent anxiety).

In fiction, characters’ mannerisms help make them feel like real people and reveal character truths on an involuntary, subconscious level.

How to Use Character Mannerisms in Your Writing

Nonfiction and fiction writers alike use character mannerisms to create distinct, instantly memorable characters. However, these mannerisms can also serve practical purposes in your writing, helping to convey essential information about your characters or story. Here are the ways that you can use character mannerisms in your writing:

To convey self-image: You can learn a lot about fictional characters through their quirks, speech patterns, and personality traits. For instance, if one of your main characters enters a room with perfect posture and their head held high, readers might gather from their body language that they consider themselves to be proper, serious, or high-status. In this way, mannerisms are a way for a writer to adhere to the adage of “show, don’t tell” when it comes to character creation.

To show character development: In the same way that a character’s little quirks can give us initial information about that character, the addition or disappearance of character traits can let us know when they’ve changed. If the same character who entered a room with perfect posture at the beginning of your novel or short story leaves with a slouch, we can surmise that the character has lost confidence. The changing of character habits can help us track a character’s development.

To differentiate between characters: Each of your characters should have their own unique idiosyncrasies. Not only does that make it feel like the characters exist in real life, but it helps the reader tell the characters apart. Oftentimes, a reader will have an easier time remembering a character through their mannerisms than through their name or occupation.

To reveal information: A character’s mannerisms can reveal information about the scene or the plot as a whole. Say one of your main character’s traits is that they do not make eye contact and can’t stop fidgeting when they’re lying. If we find ourselves in a pivotal scene and our protagonist’s eyes dart to the ground when he’s telling his wife that he’s been faithful, the reader immediately knows that he’s been cheating on her. Oftentimes, mannerisms are a much more artful and direct way of revealing information than simply having the character say it out loud.

Source ⚜ More: Writing Notes & References ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

[feathernotes]

I was writing up a post to help encourage folks who’ve always wanted to start a webcomic to dive in- and that they shouldnt have to fear ‘being perfect’ to start one And as I was going along, it made me sad to realise that.. there is an expectation now in the webcomic sphere, as much as I want to deny it (and that it should NOT stop folks from creating!!! please keep creating, no matter your level) I’m bummed out about the changes in the webcomic sphere over the past 5 years, i’m disappointed that there has been changes to this medium that was KNOWN for all of the different skill levels and flavours of so many different creators. I want to combat that. I want to see more beginner art, I want to see that excitment and embracing of growth. I want to see what made webcomics so accessible to so many creators and readers flourish again. Hopefully, if you see this post, and you’ve always wanted to make a webcomic but felt you weren’t ‘good enough’ : Make one anyways. Have fun even if you don’t know all the ‘ins and outs’ of comics. Make one because you’re obsessed with your characters and you wanna share them with the world. Make one just because you can, and not because it has to fit in some impossible standard we’ve forced onto ourselves because of the changing landscape. Start one, and have fun doing it for YOU!

[merryshitstorm]

Untitled Slashfic 1

“Stand down!”

He shuddered, his heart aching. The soldiers stood before him, his love’s blood still fresh on their blades. They came closer. “I said stand down!”

His insides ached. His heart pounded in his chest until he thought it was going to burst. He felt rage swelling within him.

He stopped.

He breathed.

Closing his eyes, he let it go. He spoke the scripture, letting it guide him.

“Be as the void,” He stepped forward.

“Stop!”

“Empty, unattached, weightless….” He continued to move forward.

“Die usurper!” One of the soldiers charged him, swinging his blade forward.

“….Nothing.” The blade passed through him as if he were as solid as the air. He reached out, his hand phasing through the soldiers' armor. He twisted his hand and the soldier fell to the ground clutching his chest as blood poured forth from his lips.

The other soldier looked at the monk in terror. And the monk reached out……

[kaijuno]

In highschool I wrote a story about a middle-generation of stellar travelers. Their parents were born on earth and left as children, and the middle generation will not live long enough to see their destination. They live their entire lives on the ship and I wrote about them trying to find their place in everything. They will never know blue skies and warm beaches and open fields with warm breezes. They’ll never know birdsong or crickets or frogs. They’ll never hear the rain on the roof of a dreary day. I never could find the right way to end the story. I wanted it to be a happy ending, but I didn’t know how to do it.

I realize now that it was a book about me dealing with depression before I even knew it. Looking back at how blatant the projecting was, it’s obvious now. It wasn’t then.

In the story, the middle-generation people are lost. They’re apathetic. They’re just a placeholder. The only job they have is to keep the ship running, have kids, and die. As the middle generation of people began becoming adults, suicide rates were skyrocketing. Crime and drug rates were jumping. This generation was completely apathetic because they felt that they had no use.

In the story, a small group of people in the middle-generation create the Weather Project. They turn the ship into a terrarium. They make magnificent gardens and take the DNA of animals they took with them and recreate them and they make this cold, metal spaceship that they have to live their entire lives on into a home. They take what little they have and they break it and rearrange it into something beautiful. They take this radical idea and turn the ship into a wonderful jungle of trees and birds and sunshine.

And I realize now how much it reflects my state of mind as I transitioned from a child into an adult while dealing with depression. You always hear “it gets better” and “when you’re older things will be easier” and I was so sick of waiting for it to get better. I was in the middle-generation stage. And I was sick of it. I was so sick of waiting.

When I was in highschool I didn’t know how to end the story. I didn’t know how to have a happy ending. I didn’t have the life experience then to finish the story in a meaningful way. I didn’t know how to make it better for these middle-generation characters.

But now that I’m older, I’m learning. That if you sit and wait for things to get better, it never will. You have to take your life and break it apart and rearrange it into something beautiful. You have to make the cold metal ship into the garden that you deserve. You have to make your own meaning. You have to plant your own garden.

You have to teach yourself that being happy is not a radical idea.

[kaijuno]

God you guys I never thought this would become so popular 😱 I was gonna name it The Weather Project after the art installment that inspired it

By Olafur Eliasson

[kaijuno]

This is the most important post that I’ve ever made. Its for screaming out with every fiber of your being that you’re worth something. You’re worth everything.

[bludragongal]

“And they went on living,” is a sentence that can be read any which way you like, I guess.

[earhartsease]

just want to say that Robert Heinlein tried to do this in Orphans of the Sky but your story is infinitely better than his was and we wish we’d read yours as a teenager instead of his

[kaijuno]

Robert Heinlein can suck it TBH

[merryshitstorm]

Warp Crisis Stories: Clan Mother Kara Mahrimi

A lone figure stood by the Temple’s window. She was a Fashtirri woman, about two and a half meters tall. Her modern, form-fitting clothes were contrasted by the tribal talismans that denoted her as a Clan Mother and the spear that she held in one hand. She stared at the starships buzzing around Kadath and the rings, like swarms of flies flying through branches of a low-grav tree.

And yet, even though the ships continued on as always, she knew something had changed. The first sign was the most obvious, but was also the most personal; Iarathi had sent a vision to her in her sleep, calling her here. The second came only a few short weeks ago, shortly after she started her journey, when Hyperspace became completely inaccessible. The third was the storms of wild magic that had begun to crop up on the worlds of the cluster with seemingly no warning.

And it has been this way ever since, for weeks now. This temple to the Purring Mother had been kind enough to help support her, but she still didn’t know why she was sent here. Her vision drifted down to the cityscape around the temple, the shapes of hovercraft wizzing to-and-fro as the people of Kadath scrambled to make sense of Hyperspace’s sudden inaccessibility.

Kara turned and began to walk down the long hallway, examining the mural that depicted so many stories of her people. Eventually, she stopped and stared at one part in particular; the coming of the first human ships to her world. In particular, the part that drew her attention was the one showing the first tentative alliance between the Fashtirri and Humans, represented by a simple handshake (which was comical, given that the Fashtirri was nearly twice the size of the human). She continued down at a languid pace, pressing her tail against the wall. Why was I supposed to come here? What is the purpose of me being here? She stopped again, her hand coming to rest just above the first hybrid in the mural. She could almost feel Iarathi trying to tell her, but w–

The temple shook as a loud rumbling came crashing through, a sound like a thousand godly thunderstorms roaring through the hallway. She staggered, her bones and guts rattling, barely catching herself with her spear just in time to follow another Priestess running down the way she just came from. As they came to the window, it became obvious what had happened.

A ship had crashed outside. It lay on the surface of the sphere like a bug on a hovercraft windshield, despite being 1,000 ft long. It tore through an arcology on its way to devastate several more, even scratching the base of their Temple’s, the sphere beneath completely unaffected as nuclear fire roared amongst the wreckage. Hovercraft darted in mad and panicked patterns, some even crashing into each other or their surroundings as they did so.

Kara stood there, staring at the carnage, unable to tear her eyes away. But soon enough, distant tremors drew her attention. Turning her head as hot tears slithered through the fur on her cheeks, she saw the lights of more starships, hundreds more! As she stared in disbelief, more ships flashed into realspace. Many were able to activate their thrusters to avoid this fate, but too many more weren’t, adding to the chaos. As she stared, her heart hammered, her breathing picked up, and she gripped her spear hard in her grip. Without thinking, she began running as hard as she could to the nearest transport. She had to help.

[lyralit]

Types of government - Writing tips

Democracy - decisions by voting, whether electing a new leader or law

Dictatorship - a single, self-chosen ruler with strict limits and specific laws

Empire - ruled by an emperor. may be composed of different states, countries, or even kingdoms (in which case the emperor would have higher rank than king). emperor has absolute say.

Monarchy - ruled by a king, could be a country or kingdom part of that empire. leadership is chosen by succession (who was born next within a certain family)

Oligarchy - power is given to certain people, of a certain higher status—whether military, monetary, or titular

Federation - states or provinces that each have their own government and share a collective one, that holds more power than the provinces' government

Confederation - like the above, but the collective government holds less power

Republic - a state in which supreme power is held by the people and their elected representatives, and which has an elected or nominated president rather than a monarch.

Theocracy - a system of government in which priests rule in the name of God or a god.

Bureaucracy - a system of government in which most of the important decisions are made by state officials rather than by elected representatives.

Socialism - a political and economic theory of social organization which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.

Communism - a political theory advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs.

Colonialism - the policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically.

[cedar-west-deactivated20230408]

If your plot feels flat, STUDY it! Your story might be lacking...

Stakes - What would happen if the protagonist failed? Would it really be such a bad thing if it happened?

Thematic relevance - Do the events of the story speak to a greater emotional or moral message? Is the conflict resolved in a way that befits the theme?

Urgency - How much time does the protagonist have to complete their goal? Are there multiple factors complicating the situation?

Drive - What motivates the protagonist? Are they an active player in the story, or are they repeatedly getting pushed around by external forces? Could you swap them out for a different character with no impact on the plot? On the flip side, do the other characters have sensible motivations of their own?

Yield - Is there foreshadowing? Do the protagonist's choices have unforeseen consequences down the road? Do they use knowledge or clues from the beginning, to help them in the end? Do they learn things about the other characters that weren't immediately obvious?

[guerrillatech]

[shanlonwrites]

It was supposed to be humanity’s fresh start. A new Eden.

They piled into the rocket ships, strapped into tight, uncomfortable space suits, crammed together in tiny passenger cabins, sweating and nervous. The ships were packed with everything they’d need. There were thousands of panes of glass, made up of the melted sands of beaches no human toes would wriggle into ever again. There were stores of freeze-dried foods, hard and chewy and unappealing; the fruits of their home, the last to sustain them. The final provisions of Eden. There were seeds, the best and hardiest which could be found, stored in coolers of dry ice, kept sleeping. Seeds which would wake on a new planet, with unfamiliar soil, and soak in the same sun -- more distant now, but familiar and comforting.  They were seeds. The seeds of humanity. The best. The most successful. The ones who had proven their worth through accruing the most gold, the most things. They were the ones who could be counted upon to force this new planet to their will. They were ruthless; they were clever; they were thoroughly human. In a state of nature, they would turn that cleverness, that instinct towards self-preservation, on one another. They would tear each other apart over the best land, the best food, the best sexual partners. But they were above nature. They had conquered it once, stripped it of its flesh, and left it a dying corpse. Their appetites would ensure their species survived beyond the husk of Earth. They could start again, they would conquer a new planet. Their descendants would battle it out in the economies of Mars, the fittest would be successful, would drive development and prompt the flourishing of a new humanity. A new Eden.  The work was hard -- much harder than they were used to. Machines assembled the domes, built and programmed by scientists who had mostly been left behind. But they had been well-compensated, in the petty currencies of Earth. The Martians waited, chewing on their freeze-dried rations and watching the domes assemble themselves. When one machine broke down and wouldn’t start again, they scratched their heads and tried to figure out how to fix it.

They were the best of humanity; the cleverest. They examined the machine. They tried to figure out who would fix it. Fighting broke out. That was what humans did. Eventually one of the original scientists lucky enough to come on the mission figured it out. The machine ground back to life and continued its task. But they were far behind schedule now.

The domes rose up around them and were pumped full of oxygen. The blue-tinted glass almost looked like home. It almost looked like the oceans they had left behind. Their drones tilled and worked the soil, while the best of humanity tried to figure out how to arrange their land claims. They squabbled over plots of nearby land, knowing that this site they currently inhabited would one day become a historic landmark, attracting tourists from all over the solar system and beyond to see the place where humanity began anew, where their journey across the stars truly began. Tourists who brought money, tourists who made them richer still. The wiser among them took enormous swathes of land on the other side of the plant, investing in their family interest far, far down the line.

While they divided and claimed and began searching for minerals and resources beneath their blue-tinted glass, they barely ever looked back at the home they had left behind. Earth was gone. There was no more to be extracted from it, save perhaps its water. A few of the Martians began to hash out water rights to Earth: who had the privilege of importing all of that life-sustaining liquid to this new planet? Sure, they could manufacture water. All it took was a little oxygen and some hydrogen -- hardly scarce chemical resources. But people liked to have authentic water. Real Earth water. They could bottle it and sell it at a premium. They could dupe their less intelligent Martians into believing they were connecting with their roots, absorbing the life-energy of the original Eden. But first they needed to find fuel for their rocket ships. They needed to power their generators and their machines. Their supplies of uranium were dwindling. Though there was plenty of ore available, they hadn’t yet set up methods of enrichment. They had diverted too much energy into exploration, into claiming and dividing the surface of the planet. Their rovers had travelled far, eating up fuel. They had sabotaged one another’s missions, hoping to claim the most valuable tracts of land for themselves, wasting resources. Hundreds of rovers lay destroyed around the planet, their parts unreachable, unsalvageable.

When they did finally look to Earth, in discussing the possibility of redirecting some of their uranium supply into a delivery mission in search of fuel, they were shocked by what they saw.

Humans.

Not as many as there had been before the Martians abandoned their planet, but nearly as many. Certainly enough.

The climates were still unstable, but they hadn’t worsened as they had predicted. Forests had encroached on former human settlements, turning subdivisions into nature parks. Their telescopes scanned the surface and found new development -- more concentrated, but there. They couldn’t work out how the Earthlings had managed to feed themselves: they could not see the patchwork of fields. They had grown over. They could not figure out how the Earthlings, the worst of Humanity, had managed to turn the planet around. But the eyes of the Martians filled with the hunger of opportunity.

Some of them had never ceded their land rights, not bothering to make the symbolic gestures of their comrades, those who had publicly donated their lands in exchange for one last dose of celebrity. Those few began to formulate a new plan.

They built a new rocket ship. They filled it with precious refined uranium and freeze-dried rations for the long trip back to their land titles. They told their fellow Martians they were going to retrieve more fuel, and bring back labourers to help enhance some of their social experiences. Robots really weren’t a replacement for a good waiter.

And they left.

When the Martians got back to Earth, they were met with curiosity and joy.

“We haven’t heard from the Martians in decades!” the people said. “We watched you through our telescopes. You’ve built impressive structures! What have you learned?”

And the Martians said, “Mars is hard and barren, and we have sacrificed so much to build a habitat there. But some of us realized we were wrong. We don’t want to rebuild humanity, we don’t want a new Eden; we want our old Eden!”

And the Earthlings welcomed them home and showed them their new cities.

They had stopped burning fossil fuels. Windmills and solar panels and water wheels were everywhere. They had stopped churning up the earth to plant endless corn and soy beans, and had learned new forms of agriculture and animal husbandry. They built communities instead of houses, unique to their landscapes. They cooperated in the design of these new approaches to life. They turned to old ways, old cultures, and traditional understandings. They supplemented tradition and history with science and careful observation and flexible adjustment of their approach. They were proud of what they had done.

“Where are our lands?” The Martians asked, impressed by the fruitfulness of this new society. “We want to know who lives on our lands, we want to know who is paying us for their use.”

The Earthlings laughed. They realized the Martians were serious. They stopped laughing. The Martians grew angry.

“We own these lands!” they shouted. “You owe us for using them for so long!”

The Earthlings pointed the Martians towards their new communities. “Stay with us. Learn more about how we’ve changed. Learn how we live. But you don’t own any land. You are not owed any pay. This can be your home, but it can not be your possession.”

The Martians tried to litigate. They tried to sue. But the legal systems of this new Earth laughed at them too. They were powerless. Their wealth meant nothing. Those who still had wealth, which had been sitting untouched for years, found they could not make it grow without time and labour. They could only spend it. So they did.

They purchased refined uranium. They loaded it into their space ship. They returned to Mars.

“Earth,” they said, “Is doomed.” And the rest of Mars agreed.

And the best of humanity flourished.

[textsfromchaldea]

with everything that’s happening right now, i don’t have much to say. but i’ll say this.

[avelera]

If you have writer’s block because of a certain idea or passage in your story, one thing I suggest is to work with a second document for discards. Every substantial story I write is written across at least 2 documents - one “main” story, and one for notes. 

The notes document contains everything not in the main document. That’s where I throw things like deleted passages, even if it’s just half a sentence because I may figure out later that I actually said it better the first time. I also put notes or even whole scenes for later plot points there, basically ideas as they come to my head that I might want to add. It takes the pressure off the main document to know nothing gets permanently thrown away. 

It’s also a place where I can free-write if I haven’t quite come up with the right wording for something, and then I can take out the best parts and put them in the main doc. It’s a document that allows me to make mistakes without wasting my effort or time, or permanently altering the pristine “real” manuscript with a random idea that ends up not really working out.

This is pretty common writing advice but I thought I’d throw it out there for anyone who feels stuck.

[frankdelflno]

Surnames are just as important as given names. So, I compiled a list of the websites I use to find my surnames.

English Surnames

Dutch Surnames

Spanish Surnames

Scottish Surnames

German Surnames

Italian Surnames

Irish Surnames

French Surnames

Scandinavian Surnames

Welsh Surnames

Jewish Surnames

Surnames By Ethnicity

Most Common Surnames in the USA

Most Common Surnames in Great Britan

Most Common Surnames in Asia

[bee-earthly]

[old-manrupee]

For whoever needs these.

[dragons-arrow]

I NEED THE ITALIAN LAST NAMES SO BAD

[ebvoice-deactivated20150727]

We are like fireworks…: Surnames Master Post.

[chronophobica]

Chinese surnames

Indian surnames

Indonesian surnames

Pakistani surnames

Bengali surnames

Japanese surnames

Filipino surnames

Korean surnames

Syrian surnames

Mongolian naming and clan names

Thai surnames

Asia is not a single country.

[beameized]

“Asia is not a single country.”

[lenacraft]

I usually just settle for Behind the Name. Thank you.

[heywriters]

Not every writer wants to post their work online, however there are positives to doing so. If you seek feedback and advice from readers and writers, you might consider posting a draft or two. Even a few chapters or a poem can be uploaded online to get a little audience feedback.

Here are writing sites I’ve explored along with brief reviews of my experience in using them:

Fictionpress | Original fiction only | Covers Opt. — Has a docs feature so you can save works onsite without posting them, plus moderately detailed analytics to show you individual story traffic. With plenty of keen writers/readers willing to learn and help, written feedback is not uncommon here. Quiet and comfortable, but if you don’t update very often readership grows stagnant. It’s also worth noting that you cannot delete reviews or your account. — Adult Material Prohibited.

Major Demographics: All genders, All ages.*

Popular Genres: sci-fi, contemporary, fantasy*

Fanfiction.net | Fanfiction only | Covers Opt. — Sister site to Fictionpress, thus it has all the same features and drawbacks. However, it gets much more traffic than the original fiction site. When it comes to categorizing your story though it can get tricky, and if you have questions or complaints for the administrators, don’t expect a response email soon…or ever. — Adult Material Prohibited.

Major Demographics: Female, All ages.

Popular Genres: epic dramas, fluff, angst, whump

Archive Of Our Own (AO3) | Fanfiction only** | No covers — Invite only, but getting in isn’t hard. High viewership, well organized, and ad-free. Some written feedback, especially if you ask for some, but the “kudos” button is open to the public so anyone can leave their mark of approval. You can also set individual stories to “users only” along with other useful privacy options.

Crossover friendly, so you can finally post that multi-fandom fic and tag each property for search. Ships, subject material, and trigger warnings are also taggable for search (or to weed out in the case of tws). Lets you group individual stories into a series, and has various features for sharing/gifting your work with others. Overall the best place for fanfiction, hands down. — Adult Material Allowed

Major Demographics: Female, All ages.

Popular Genres: smut, epic dramas, fluff/angst, whump

Wattpad | Original & fan fiction | Covers Req. — Wattpad has been steadily improving its features and policies in the five years I’ve been using it. Here, some writers receive tons of feedback and appreciation, but most receive very little. A few authors have gotten published thanks to this site, others have followers in the hundreds of thousands, and still others become site administrators to support the bustling community.

They’ve recently rebranded, and have also introduced a feature to earn writers money. It is currently in beta and being tested with select authors only.

Unlike other sites, this one has very clear international groups and a high ethnic diversity among its writers. There’s an emphasis on supporting foreign authors and their stories in any language. Contests are set up by the site, but also smaller niche ones can be run by individual users.

It’s very fun to use and if the site chooses to feature one of your works you can get a lot of traffic. For the most part however, you have to practice marketing yourself, and/or develop a group of writer friends and read/promote each other’s work. — Adult Material allowed, but along strict guidelines (lots of kids use this site!).

Major Demographics: Female, Teens.

Popular Genres: romance, young adult, supernatural, celeb fic, fantasy

Royal Road | Original & fan fiction | Covers Opt. — This was suggested in the replies, so I did some research. Haven’t used it myself, looks nice, but here are the main points interested writers should know: 

Site does not claim ownership of your work, copyright stays with you.

Popular stories receive much feedback and viewership in the millions.

You cannot remove reviews on your own stories, and you must submit a ticket to remove your story or delete your account.

From their FAQ: “All new submissions are manually checked for appropriate tagging and plagiarism, so expect it to take 12-24 hrs for a submission to be approved.” Also, stories with low-quality spelling and grammar will be removed by moderators.

Keeping a steady update schedule of “polished” drafts seems to be mandatory, and reviewers sound entitled.

One-shots seem to be out of the question, this is a site for novels.

Premium and free options exist for both readers and writers.

Site is affilated with Amazon, has been running for six years, and is based in Israel.

Fantasy, supernatural, epic dramas.

Adult Material Allowed

Smashbook and Livejournal are sites I am aware of, but have too little knowledge of to review. Likewise Wordpress, Blogger, or right here on Tumblr you can regularly post stories or novels and receive feedback. However, for those sites you do have to figure out a blogging system for yourself.

While researching good sites for this post, I found this user’s comments insightful. She suggested Writer’s Digest and Absolute Write as good places to seek professional feedback on your work. They don’t appear to be sites where you post work, but rather they provide tips and resources to help improve your work.

There are dozens of other places online where you can post your original fiction, non-fiction, and fan fiction. Things to keep in mind when site shopping:

READ THEIR SUBMISSION POLICIES & GUIDELINES FIRST

Search for reviews of the site by individuals who’ve actually used the site and are not affilated with the site.

See what the site’s policy is on deleting works & accounts. You don’t want to get your name and work trapped on a site with a bad reputation.

If “popular” stories have very little feedback on them, this means the majority of stories on that site get none.

If most users haven’t updated in months/years, this means the site is practically dead and may soon shut down. RED FLAG: the site does not date anything.

If the “feedback” on users’ pages and stories are “Like my work!” or “Read for read?” and other self-promotional messages, don’t sign up.

If a site looks cool to you but you’re still unsure, make an account with a junk email and post something you don’t care too much about just to test the waters. Good/bad doesn’t matter much right now, what’s important is figuring out how traffic works and what readers there are interested in. 

Sites to AVOID due to spam, scams, and shifty behavior:

Inkitt—spam/shifty; claims it’s the #1 site for online publishing, but this is misleading. Their idea of getting users is to send copy/paste “invitations” to pre-existing online accounts (often dead accounts), and lie about how good one’s writing is even though they’ve never read it. Signing up with them also gets you endless emails about their pathetic contests.

Dreame—spam/scam; similar deceptive invitation tactic, except they are relentless (they’ve “invited” me five six times on two different sites). Their gimmick is to offer you pennies for 5yr rights to your work (and their site is trashy with very little reader feedback).

FicFun—same as Dreame, both are owned by their Singaporean parent company Stary PTE Ltd. (who personally sent me my 5th “invite”).

+ If you have a question, please review my Ask Policy before sending in your ask. Thank you!

+ If you benefit from my updates and replies, please consider sending a little thank you and Buy Me A Coffee! 

+ HEY, Writers! other social media: Wattpad - AO3 - Pinterest - Goodreads

—

*Based on what I see as receiving the most traffic and feedback on each site. These are not accurate statistics, merely observations.

** “Is AO3 really just for fanfic?” (tl;dr—YES)

[adorhauer]

How I Wrote A Novel.

This, in a nutshell, is what I did to get a book with my name on it.

NOTE: This is just my personal way of making the words go. Other people have different ways to make their words go. In the world of words, there are no right answers. There’s just lots and lots of tea/coffee/tear stains.

1). The Idea

When I get an idea for a story, I open up a document, label it “Brainstorming,” and start making a bullet list of events that consist of the plot.

It has to be an idea with tangible weight. A stray bit of dialogue or something vague like Halloween, that doesn’t give me much to work off of. Halloween creatures living on the same street where it’s Autumn every day- now that’s something I can build from.

What kinds of creatures are they? What do they do? What do their houses look like? The best ideas are the ones that spark more.

2). First Draft

This is the easy part- and the most challenging. Easy, because there’s literally no bar. I just sat there and typed. But it’s a huge mental challenge.

When I was in first draft mode, I wanted that story out. I thought that by making it such a rough, far-away version from the concept in my head, I was only delaying the day where I’d hold it in my hands. Turns out, that’s what got it to take on physical form in the first place. So I quieted down, grabbed my laptop and some hot tea, and typed.

3). Dissecting the First Draft

After I finished draft one, I printed it all off and highlighted the scant amounts that were passable for the next phase. Dialogue, descriptions, setting- anything that didn’t look like it was up to par was scratched out and omitted.

I call the above pictures A Slow Descent Into Madness.

4). The Second Draft

On a fresh document, I rewrote the story altogether- and it make a difference. I was coming up with things I hadn’t even thought of previously. And it was surprising how much better the plot was than the first time around. But it was still rough.

5). Draft Three

My method was to start with the bigger, more obvious issues and work my way down. Any plot holes I found were noted, and my outline was constantly under revision. I cut out entire scenes and made mental notes on ways they could be fixed/replaced.

This is where I started cutting chapters in half to make the story flow better- but I didn’t bother writing in usable chapter titles. Instead, I improvised:

6). Drafts Four and Five

These were dedicated to correcting the smaller, less obvious plot holes. This was the point where the story finally started to look close to what would become the final version.

7). Drafts Seven Onward

With the story line looking how I wanted, I then moved on to sentence structure. That one song that looked terrible? Rewritten. Over-the-top descriptions and excessive prose? Gone.

8). Editing and Proofing

This is where I had outside help. Besides this useful tool, I had two people check for spelling issues and the overall story. Once it was in decent shape to be made public, I asked for some additional help.

9). Betas

My betas were in the age range that my novel was geared toward, along with a couple of teachers and parents (as it was middle grade). I gave them the full manuscript, along with seven basic questions like “Which characters were your favorite/least favorite and why?” and “Was there a part of the story that didn’t make sense?”

I gave my betas three months to read a 42,590 word story, and by the end they gave me back the review sheets.

10). Final Adjustments

After I read over the reviews, I let the comments sit for three days so that I could proceed with a clear head. I smoothed out any flaws, scanned over the MS twice to make sure everything was right, and that is how I got to the end of writing my first novel.

Next comes publishing- which is a different beast entirely.

[frayedcobweb]

For future reference. Wow, what a comprehensive post.

[the-right-writing]

Things almost every author needs to research

How bodies decompose

Wilderness survival skills

Mob mentality

Other cultures

What it takes for a human to die in a given situation

Common tropes in your genre

Average weather for your setting

[clevergirlhelps]

yoooo

How bodies decompose

Wilderness survival skills

Mob mentality

Other cultures

What it takes for a human to die in a given situation

Common tropes for your genre

Average weather for your setting

[candy-m-s-deactivated20180720]

Where has this been when I needed it???

[ren-of-rationality]

Good resources (definitely the last two are important) but how many stories are being written about getting murdered by a group of people in the wilderness of a foreign land?

[idkrpg-ideas]

Commissions

So, I need money, and would actually like to do what I love, so I’m making commissions available. What is it I do? Writing! While I write probably too much lore for my stuff, I have also written a few short stories and homebrewed a few rules, so if you guys want me to write backstory for something in your world, a story of some kine for you, or make some rules, I’d be happy to help.

If you’re interested, simply DM me and we’ll discuss the commission

If you would like to help support me in general, please consider supporting me on patreon

[writeworld-blog]

How to Write a Fight Scene (Rebloggable Version)

Admin Note: This post is a rebloggable copy of our page on fight scenes. The page is being phased out, so from now on all updates will be made on this post and not on the page. 

Among the typically difficult scenes writers face in their stories, the fight scene definitely ranks high on the list. Below you will find several resources with tips for writing a good fight scene.

Action with a Side of Zombies: One of our articles focused specifically on writing action scenes. Bonus:  the examples all include zombies.

ArchetypesAndAllusions: An article on the three main types of fighters and their various approaches to kickin’ ass (or not).

TheCreativePenn.com: Alan Baxter, speculative fiction author, gives some great advice on characterization, setting, martial style, and cliches. 

StoryHack.com: A PDF that takes you through writing a fight scene step by step by Randy Ingermanson, compiled by Bryce Beattie.

MarilynnByerly.com: An extremely good guide to writing fight scenes. This guide includes tips on character viewpoint, mapping the fight, and tricks for writing each type of fight. 

Shelfari.com: This site is an interview with famed fantasy author R.A. Salvatore on how to write great fight scenes.

TheBusinessOfWriting: C. Patrick Schulze gives some good, solid advice on identifying and writing your fight scene.

EzineArticles.com: Marq McAlister explains how to make a fight scene pack some serious punch. This article is good for fine-tuning.

Martin Turner: Focusing specifically on sword-fighting scenes, Martin Turner writes in great detail on every conceivable detail of this type of time-honored fight scene. 

SeriousPixie.com: Susan tells you about the three types of fight scene writers and explains how to fix the problems that arise for each type.

David Alan Lucus: This multi-part guide gives advice in exhaustive detail on how to write an awesome fight scene.

NightFoot: This Tumblr post offers some great tips for writing fight scenes.

Film Crit Hulk: A shoe-in for screenwriters, the Hulk and special guest Tom Townend talk shop on how to write a great movie action scene.

Harry Edmundson-Cornell: Harry writes a series on the fight scene geared toward writers of Superhero comics.

How To Fight Write: The knowledgeable and thorough admins of this exceptional Tumblr blog will teach you everything you ever wanted to know about fight scenes and weaponry—even if they have to beat it into you.

Scholagladiatoria: A YouTuber with lots of weapons teaches you how they were/are properly used to their greatest advantage.

These links provide advice specifically for writing battle scenes:

Gerri Blanc: eHow’s article on battle scenes is a basic step-by-step list for you. It’s a good introduction to writing battle scenes.

StormTheCastle.com: This article takes you through an in-depth guide on how to write battle scenes for fantasy stories.

Rhonda Leigh Jones: Jones lists some dos and don’ts of writing battle scenes.

Other resources:

List of Martial Arts: Looking for a fighting style? Find it here!

List of Weapons: Every type of weapon you can think of is listed here.

List of Military Tactics: From troop movements to siege warfare, this list has got you covered.

Asylum.com: A few examples of awesome battle tactics from history.

BadassOfTheWeek.com: Get some inspiration for awesome fight scenes and fighting characters from this compendium of badassitude.

Thearmedgentleman: Austin has offered to share his knowledge on weaponry with any writers who have questions. Thanks, Austin! 

Don’t see what you’re looking for here? You can find every post we’ve ever made or reblogged about fight scenes in our “fight” tag. You might also find our “action scene” tag useful. 

We hope this helps! If you have another link or a tip for how to write fight/battle scenes, hit up our ask box and let us know!

[art-res]

Great tutorial!